Surabaya to revamp Tunjungan, Pecinan to attract more tourists

Surabaya to revamp Tunjungan, Pecinan to attract more tourists
Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Archipelago | Sat, May 04 2013, 11:30 AM



The lyric of popular song “Rek Ayo Rek” goes: Rek ayo rek, mlaku-mlaku neng Tunjungan (Friends, let’s hang out in Tunjungan).

It seems like the song, composed by Is Haryanto, inspired Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini, or Risma, to revive the Jl. Tunjungan area in Surabaya, East Java, as a nostalgic tourist destination.

Besides Tunjungan, the Surabaya municipality will also develop the Pecinan Chinatown area in Kembang Jepun and Kampung Ampel.

“The Tunjungan area was previously a place to stroll. Many Dutch residents and citizens of Chinese descent used to shop in the area. The road was also a witness to the fight against Dutch rule by members of Surabaya’s arek-arek youth,” Risma told The Jakarta Post recently.

Risma said her administration would coordinate with various parties so the Jl. Tunjungan area could be turned into a car-free district every Sunday, like the Taman Bungkul area, also in Surabaya.

“Later, the Tunjungan area will be open for small and medium-scale enterprises to sell Surabaya specialities, such as rujak cingur [vegetable salad with slices of cow’s snout], gado-gado [vegetable salad with peanut sauce] and pecel [boiled vegetables in peanut sauce] and various kinds of handicrafts,” said Risma.

She added that the government would also continue to organize sidewalk vendors by providing a special area for them in Surabaya.

Surabaya Tourism Office head Wiwik Widayati said her office would also develop Kampong Ampel and Chinatown to draw foreign visitors, expected to reach 350,000 people this year.

Wiwik added the two subdistricts had distinct features and worthy of becoming tourist destinations, for example, the Sunan Ampel Mosque and Sunan Ampel tomb in Kampong Ampel and culinary excursions.

“Foreign visitors could get tour packages which include preparing local dishes,” said Wiwik.

In the Pecinan Chinatown area, added Wiwik, the municipality would convert the Han house of ashes into a tourist site.

The Han house of ashes was founded by Han Siong Kong who arrived in Indonesia in 1673. One of his descendants, Han Bwee Koo, came to Surabaya and was appointed as kapiten der Chineezen, representing the Dutch colonial administration to lead the Chinese residents in the city. He later built the house on Chineezen Voorstraat, currently Jl. Karet. The house was then converted into a house of ashes for the Han clan.

The house was built by the Han family and used as a house of prayer to respect their ancestors. Despite being called a house of ashes, no urns containing ashes are kept in the house, but a sinchi family tree.

The Petjinan Trace Community leader Paulina Mayasari said the development of the Chinatown area into a tourist and educational place for the public was part of a concerted effort to preserve the Chinese culture for the younger generation and to foster insight into Surabaya’s history.

“Members of the Chinese community in Surabaya are no longer people from China. We are Indonesians. We love Indonesia more than the country where our ancestors came from,” Paulina told the Post.

Besides the Han house of ashes, added Paulina, several other spots in Chinatown could serve as tourism and education sites for the community to learn about the Chinese-Indonesian community.

They include the Bongpay stone carving on Jl. Bunguran; Potehi plays at the Hong Tek Hian, the oldest temple in the Dukuh village in Chinatown, built by Emperor Kublai Khan’s soldiers in 1293; and the Kung Fu training center in West Surabaya.